fossil fuel industry is shaping childrens’ education in the United States. The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote on whether or not new science standards for middle schoolers should include climate change. The language they choose will ultimately dictate how textbooks nationwide address the issue. The Board already watered down the standards after fierce lobbying by fossil fuel companies, despite urging from climate scientists that school curriculums should reflect how human activity, such as the release of greenhouse gases, has affected the climate. We speak with investigative reporter Katie Worth, who visited schools across the United States and found corporate and political interests are blocking the truth about the climate crisis from being taught in classrooms. Her new book is “Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America.” “There’s a long history of the fossil fuel industry trying to get their messages to children, because that shapes how future generations will think about their industry and how they will regulate their industry,” says Worth.
They’re going to be including some information about climate change, both about natural climate change and human-caused climate change. But again the language has sort of been attenuated by board members who are very sympathetic to the fossil fuel industry, which as we know is very powerful here in Texas. For example, there was an effort to include the word “can” from the phrase “Describe how human activities can influence climate.” Some of the board members were saying, “Let’s just say ‘human activities influence climate’” because that is now an understood truth. But the other board members really
— source democracynow.org | 19 Nov 2021